Tag Archives: Dance

The world premiere of ChristinaNoel and the Creature’s “‘murica” showcases choreographer ChristinaNoel Reaves’ signature brand of dance theater. Her unique assortment of flavors challenges, entertains, and ultimately points to a new road for the future of dance.

The piece opens to reveal Jeremy “Jae” Neal slowly circling the stage; the simplicity of his presence immediately captures our attention. From offstage and in the balcony, the sound of humming envelopes us; the cast’s vocalizations comprise the score for the first section of the piece. The regal Joanna Futral, using simple, angular movements that display incredible control, joins Neal. Aristocratic looking in long skirts and high necked leotards, their sensuous opening duet wavers between conflict and tenderness.

Reaves proves that she is more than a choreographer; she is a composer too. Her company consists of incredible dancers who can act and make music. Periodically, these performers accompany themselves by speaking and sustaining long notes. In a raucous canon performed by the full cast, the dancers stomp their feet along with flamenco-inspired hand motions, chanting in canon “you like me, you love me, you want me.”

It is impossible not to notice the camaraderie amongst the group; they enjoy moments of improv comedy just as much as the audience. Neal issues a starling scream, and the entire cast scatters. In a gestural assertion of his manliness, Neal grabs Futral and dramatically dips her. “These are the rules of the game,” Neal announces. Some take him seriously. Others don’t. The proclamation leads to an entertaining series of mini skits evoking a modern version of the founding fathers, struggling to piece together rules for the governing of their new land.

Themes of individuality versus group allegiance (harkening back to the title “‘murica”) proliferate. Liz Beres performs a wild and indulgent solo, accompanying herself with vocalizations; one by one the others take notice and begin to chastise her for defying the group: “Liz, what are you doing?” “Liz, this is just crazy.”

The work constantly wavers between calm and chaos. Peaceful, holy music soon dissipates into heavy rock. Following a pedestrian moment, the cast mutates from humans into sensuous creatures, crawling, lunging, swiping, and gliding. “murica” juxtaposes formality and eccentricity. Reaves, deadpan and serious, appears to recite lyrics in a foreign language. Tara Nicholas performs a flamboyant voguing solo, circling her hips and chanting a catchy song.

The dancers extend their arms behind their heads in a recurring gesture, which bears resemblance to angel wings. As the lights dim, an angelic hum is the only lingering shadow of the performance that occurred. Throughout the piece we see the cast make the transition back and forth between ethereal saints, flawed mortals, and raw creatures. It’s between these extremes that Reaves has found something that feels true to the human condition.

Theo Boguszewski, Founder of the Hoover Dam Collective

“I think the the HDC is a great example of young people coming together to create their own opportunities in a difficult and often isolating city. I love that the HDC is centered around community- we give artists the opportunity to network and form relationships with other artists.”

This guy came up to us and wanted to be in the picture too.

“I have been living the neighborhood for over fours years and have watched it change greatly. I am excited to be part of a growing arts community and I want to share the HDC with the neighborhood and encourage locals to get involved.”

LoudHoundMovement is a choreographic partnership based in Brooklyn, New York, which aims to enhance artistic integrity in contemporary dance-making through research, idea exchange, and public performance, oftentimes adding elements of multi-media. LHM focuses on a creation process that is highly influence by the individuality of their dancers, and the distinctive self-expression of these artists.

(There’s something very Disney-prince-and-princess this photo. I halfway expected them to break into song here.)

“Above all, we believe in the accessibility of our work and the crossover from dance to other art forms. Hoover Dam Collective offers us a comfortable and fun environment to show work that we believe in and interact with ambitious artists that we wouldn’t normally encounter.”

September 27th, 8pm.

Oh, the brisk air! The rattle of Cicadas in the late summer dusk! The pumpkin spice lattes! Yes, oh yes, FALL IS fucking HERE! It’s New York City’s most pleasant (read most tolerable) season, and the Hoover Dam Collective is embracing it with open arms. Enter HDC’s FallOut, an art extravaganza in a unique loft space located in Prospect Heights. Incredible music acts? We got it. Class act dance companies? Wouldn’t do without them! Interactive pop up performances? Why not? Secret spacious venue with tons of character? Yes! Booze? DRINK UP!

(I sincerely hope there will be a washboard at FallOut)

The evening is headlined by Nat Osborn Band and ChristinaNoel and the Creature.

“The Nat Osborn Band melds, mashes, and stirs up styles like a chef mixing spices: a dash of funk here, a dollop of big band there, a sprinkling of reggae all around a solid base of smart, catchy songwriting. The result: a unique and original sound all its own.”

Spark(edit) Arts

Are you extremely pumped yet?

If you’re interested in attending, you can purchase tickets in advance ($10) here: https://www.artful.ly/store/events/4157 or at the door ($12) with cash. If you’re going to purchase tickets at the door, please email us to R.S.V.P. so that we can give you the address. The venue is super secret and crazy underground so we cant post the address publicly. (But we can tell you it’s in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn)

As always, we are so excited to bring you this curated evening of awesomeness.

After countless mental disses towards the weather it is totally a normal and intrinsic part of human existence to say “when will it stop” as well as “I need to get out and go on an adventure or something”.

This weekend is expected to be a relief from Mama Snow, and The Hoover Dam Collective Dancers will be warming their tendons and giving it all they’ve got at the Slipper Room on Orchard Street, a downright noteworthy/gorgeous new venue right off of Allen Street.

Come on and cozy it up with old friends Brian & Silbin, Freeman Dre, Little Embers and even more pals. HDC’s ownBreegan Kearney (yes that is clickable) will be performing a solo piece (solo anything = cojones and talent) for Kat Rhodes based off of her piece “Sisters I Didn’t Had”. It is worth noting that Kearney has previously stated that she’s “not afraid to slap her audience in the face a bit”, which means that yes, it is definitely going to be a good show.

Mary Carter is also going to show something. If that was purposely vague it’s because she’s the “creative type” that not only seems to do everything that falls under the umbrellas of “creative” and “cool”, but she also manages to just totally excel at all of those things.

This is her advice for living (that was paraphrased, but this isn’t) –

“Do! Show up! Try and foresee bumps coming and just plow through them by staying active, don’t be afraid to ask for help, and the moment you let down that wall, anything can happen!”

Right. If there weren’t enough reasons to be down to go there’s also Katz’s Delicatessen down the street (Google Maps estimates it as a 3 minute walk), which means that this could essentially be the perfect “snow breakers” night of 2014 with just a little bit of planning.